5.03.2004

This being my thirty-first birthday, I want to share what I consider to be my "birthday hymn."

Father, I know that all my life is portioned out for me,
The changes that are sure to come I do not fear to see;
I ask Thee for a present mind intent on pleasing Thee.

I would not have a restless will that hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great thing to do or secret thing to know;
I would be treated as a child, and guided where I go.

I ask Thee for the daily strength to none that ask denied,
A mind to blend with outward life while keeping at Thy side;
Content to fill a little space, if Thou be glorified.

In service which Thy will appoints there are no bounds for me;
My inmost heart is taught the truth that makes Thy children free.
A life of self-renouncing love is one of liberty.

--Anna Waring, 1850. ["Trinity" edit]

Reflecting on my own birth, my thoughts turn to those whose lives are brutally cut short before birth. Although I am militantly pro-life, I do understand how some of my friends remain in favor of abortion. Some of them have had abortions, and are not emotionally prepared to accept the reality of what they've done. Others remain in ideological straitjackets that severely limit their ability to be self-critical.

But I have a difficult time stomaching the moral gymnastics and hypocrisy of those who acknowledge that preborns are persons (and hope abortions cease), yet also support abortion's legality. Granted, some of these people display tremendous naiveté about pro-abortionism. They suppose that simply making others aware that children in utero are alive will do the trick. Think again, kids.

Julia Black, a pro-abortion activist in the UK, recently produced a film which showed several abortions and displayed the shredded baby corpses. Mere empirical reality does not persuade. Gruesome holocaust can become mundane. People get used to unspeakable horror.